It's a Long Way Back
by the-irish-redhead
Summary: AU from season 4. Lucas and Brooke left for New York after Senior Year, leaving everyone behind. What happens upon Lucas' return, and how will the people he left react? Leyton.
1. Chapter 1

**Okay, my new story, not too sure if the prologue will explain everything but basically forget everything that happened in season 4 because it's AU from there on.**

**Disclaimer:**

**I own squat.**

New York. It wasn't _home_, Tree Hill would always be home for him, but it was where they lived, and it would do. Or at least he hoped it would. Lucas Scott was many things, he was a brother, a would-be author, and Brooke Davis' boyfriend of four and a half years. And he was satisfied with his life at that moment. He didn't regret leaving Tree Hill, he loved his girlfriend and he'd do anything for her, even if that meant leaving his friends and family and never looking back. Her wish was his command, he'd almost lost her before and he would give his life to make sure that that didn't happen again. Lucas' book, An Unkindness of Ravens, was going around various publishers' houses, each one sending back a letter saying that they were sorry, but it wasn't good enough. Or at least that's how he interpreted it, and so he spent each day sitting in their apartment trying to make it better while also trying to forget that he was, in fact, leeching off his famous girlfriend.

It was mid-November when he got the call, Haley was in labor and he was needed at home. Haley and Nathan were still happily married, Nathan was playing in the NBA and Haley taught at Tree Hill High. Haley was pregnant with their second child, a girl he was told. And, because Haley was his best friend and Nathan was his brother, he went straight to the airport, calling Brooke on the way to tell her what was happening and that while he hoped to see her in Tree Hill, he would understand if she couldn't make it and he was sure that everyone else would too.

Arriving at Tree Hill was different, it had changed more then he had ever thought possible, and he was ashamed to admit it, without him.

By the time he arrived he found through Mouth, whom he had met while entering the hospital, that Haley had already given birth to Grace Peyton Scott and that both mother and daughter were happy and healthy, though Mouth did warn him that Peyton was currently visiting her godchild.

Peyton Sawyer had been important to Lucas, but at the end of the day he had chosen to follow Brooke to New York and had, therefore, effectively cut Peyton out of his life. She had tried to keep in contact but he got caught up in the hustle and bustle of New York and their friendship had ended when he had finally answered one of her many phone calls during which they had gotten into a fight and she accused him of ignoring her and they hadn't spoken since.

Gathering up all of his courage he prepared himself for what he would be one of, if not the, most awkward experience he had experienced.

"Knock, knock" he said in his cheesy manner while knocking at the door.

"Luke!" both Nathan and Haley exclaimed, with Nathan walking to hug his brother "God, it's good to see you, when'd you get here?" Haley continued

"Just got here," Lucas said, moving over to hug Haley, who was sitting in her bed "Mouth said that everything went great, how are you doing?"

"I'm exhausted Luke, but so elated at the same time."

"How's she doing?" Lucas asked as Haley took the baby back from Peyton, who, had been successfully blending into the back-round until then.

"She's doing great." Haley replied

"How have you been Luke? It seems like forever since we saw you" Nathan asked

"I can't complain. Brooke's sorry but she can't get away from work for a while," Lucas answered, to which Peyton snorted "She said she'd try to be here next week though." Lucas continued, ignoring Peyton.

"Don't you want to hold your niece, Luke?" Haley said, breaking the silence that had descended on the group.

Lucas smiled and gently took the baby that Haley was holding out for him.

"She's beautiful Hales, Nate, you guys are so lucky."

"So any kids on the horizon for you and Brooke?" Nathan joked

"Maybe someday, but she's just so busy right now and we're still young, we've got plenty of time."

Nathan nodded "I know what you're saying, but right now, I wouldn't change a thing." Haley looked at him in awe "And let me tell you, having kids, it's the best feeling anyone can get, no matter what their age."

Lucas nodded and, after some polite conversation, handed Grace back to Haley while saying "Well it's getting late, I'd better go to the motel. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Wait, Luke." Peyton said after Nathan nudged her "Can I get a lift? I rode here with them."

Lucas looked to consider before nodding, and, after saying goodbye to the happy family, he left the room.

Peyton gave one last bitter look at Nathan, who simply chuckled, and followed Lucas outside.

"So welcome to the club" Lucas said, breaking the silence that had settled between them

"Which one?" Peyton said bitterly

"The Naley kids namesake one" Lucas said, trying to lighten the mood.

"Lucas, they only have one other kid, so you're the only one in the club. So what do you do, sit around not talking to your friends?"

"It wasn't like that Peyton." He paused "Look, I'm sorry, for everything, but it's New York and I was trying to get my book published and I guess I just lost track of everything, lost sight of what's important."

"Okay there are three things wrong with that Luke. Firstly, what book? Secondly, you found the time to write a book but not to keep in contact? And thirdly, if I'm so important then why'd you ever let anything close to this happen? What happened to the Lucas Scott I knew, who told me that he wouldn't, couldn't, cut me out of his life?"

The car pulled to a stop outside what was once, and still was, Peyton's house.

"People change Peyt, and I'm truly sorry, if I could change things I would but this isn't high school anymore, life isn't as simple as it was ba..."

He was cut off by a kiss, a simple but meaningful kiss, one of hurt and passion that he hadn't felt in almost five years, one that he hadn't known he was missing until that moment.

"Peyton, I'm..." He stuttered

"Do you want to come in?"

**Okay, so there it is, the first chapter. What'd you think? Any questions please ask in your reviews ;) Until, hopefully if people like this, next time... Adios amigos.**


	2. Misery Business

_Previously:_

"_People change Peyt, and I'm truly sorry, if I could change things I would but this isn't high school anymore, life isn't as simple as it was ba..." _

_He was cut off by a kiss, a simple but meaningful kiss, one of hurt and passion that he hadn't felt in almost five years, one that he hadn't known he was missing until that moment. _

"_Peyton, I'm..." He stuttered_

"_Do you want to come in?"_

"Peyton, I... I just_... We're_ just... We're just friends. "

"It's okay Luke, I get it. You're with Brooke." Peyton said simply, as though she had long been resigned to that one simple fact that had dominated their junior year of high school, and got out of the car, "Well, I guess I'll be seeing you, Luke" and just like that, she walked away from him like she'd been doing it all of her life.

Lucas sighed as he thought that after four years, she could still walk away from him with such ease and he could still feel like he had been holding his breath, waiting to see if she would really leave, and, as unreasonable as he knew it was, if she would walk away from them. And so, safe in the knowledge that she had gotten home safely, he drove. Driving away from the demons that, it would seem, still haunted him.

Ironic, some would see it as, that his car broke down, and, that after calling for a tow-truck it was he who had no one to call. He couldn't call Nathan, for while he was sure that his brother would come, he couldn't ask him to leave his wife and new-born child to rush to his brother's aid, and everyone else he knew, well he didn't know anyone else, or at least not in Tree Hill. The exception of that being Peyton, who, he had decided, would never let him forget about the time that _she_ had saved _him_. But since the mechanic was annoyed and, reasonably, grouchy about being called at the crack of dawn, he called her.

"This better be good Scott" she warned him as her car pulled up beside him on the long and narrow road "Because I do not wake up at the crack of dawn for just anything"

Lucas laughed and walked around to the other side of the car, "What, you don't get a mysterious phone call in the middle of the night every night?"

"Not since you left at least" she retorted with a hint of resentment in her voice, one which most people wouldn't have noticed. But Lucas Scott was not most people.

"Peyton, look, I'm sorry. Okay? It's just that I had no one else to call"

"Lucas, it's not that. It's that... You're just not the Lucas Scott that I remember, not the one who left and went to New York" She said simply. Lucas couldn't believe his ears, or he didn't want to.

"Peyton, of course I've changed. It's called growing up." He felt his anger rising at the mention of his supposed abandonment.

"You don't think that I've had to grow up? What about when you left with Brooke, without so much as a goodbye? Or how about when my moms died? Wasn't I mature then? Or when I got shot? You don't think that any of those things made me grow up?" Her own anger was matching his. She had pulled the car over to the side of the road by now.

"Well considering that you kissed me not 2 hours ago even though I'm dating Brooke? You did it just like you did it 4 years ago, because you can't accept that I moved on from you, that you haven't dominated my life." He was snarling now

"Get out" she said in a deathly whisper "Get out, go back to New York and this time don't even bother trying to stay in touch"

And so he did as he was told, he stepped away from the car and watched it, along with the girl who had just made his heart race, speed along the road and into the far away distance.

The sun was rising as Lucas walked up to the house. He didn't have a home in Tree Hill anymore, as hard as it was for him to admit, and so he ended up outside the only Scott residence in town. There was a crack of light coming from the window in the front room, and Lucas instantly knew that Nathan was awake. He didn't bother knocking on the door, which was kept unlocked, but rather let himself in. The sight that he saw instantly warmed his heart, Haley, Jamie and Grace were sleeping peacefully on an armchair, though Nathan was nowhere to be seen. Lucas made an educated guess and figured that Nathan would be in the kitchen, thinking. And sure enough, there he was.

"What is it Luke?" Nathan asked playfully "What did you do this time?"

"It's what I did 4 years ago, and the fact that Peyton can't get over it." Lucas replied, his voice noticeably lacking that cheerfulness of Nathan's

"Luke, you know that 'People Always Leave'..." Nathan began until Lucas interrupted him

"But she said that I've changed, and I know that I have, but has it really been that much?" Lucas asked hastily

"Lucas, Peyton has changed in 4 years more then anyone. She needed you and Brooke and everyone that could help, but you weren't there. You're the one person that she would have _never _expected to leave, but you did. You did, and you weren't there when she needed you."

"But she had..."

"No Luke, she needed you" Haley interrupted them, her sleep having been disturbed by their voices "And you didn't save her"

"When could she have needed saving? It's Tree Hill! Nothing happens here!" Lucas replied hysterically, unbelieveing that Peyton might have needed him.

"Lucas, Peyton was raped." Haley said soberly. And just like that, realisation came crashing down on his shoulders, Peyton had needed him. And he wasn't there to save her as he had done countless times. He had let Peyton down.

Lucas ran, he ran as fast as he could, pushing away the thoughts that just kept on coming into his head. Wondering how on Earth he couldn't have been there, how he couldn't have sensed that something had happened to her, something big, in those 4 years. 4 years had changed his life, and now, he was sure that it wasn't for the better. So he ran, he ran as fast as he could, because maybe, if he ran fast enough, he could turn back the hands of time. He couldn't remember running up the driveway, or knocking on the door, or even waiting for her to answer. But the rest happened in almost slow motion, as if seeing her was enough for him, for those fleeting seconds.

"Lucas..." she was cut of by him. Him and his tender lips and rough hands. Lucas was kissing her and she hated him. She hated him with so much fury, so much passion that she pushed him away. She pushed away he man that she had been waiting for for 4 years, the man that she never thought would come. Lucas stumbled away from her, shocked by her reaction.

"Lucas, when I said to go back to New York I meant it with every fibre of my being. Go home to Brooke." she closed the door, tears streaming down her face. She had not just said that. She would wake up from this dream, this nightmare that was engrossing her world and he'd be there. They would be back in the school library and he would be promising her that it was all going to be alright.

Lucas hadn't expected her to open the door again, or jump into his arms, kissing every inch of his skin that she could get her hands on, so when she did he almost dropped her. But he didn't, instead they stood there, on her porch, in each other's arms making up for 4 years apart.

**Okay peeps, first of all, I am so sorry for the really long delay, my internet broke and was like that for a month until the company decided to fix it, so blame them.**

**Secondly, this is kind of a Leyton fic... Sorry to disappoint and mislead but there you go.**

**Like it or hate it, tell it all in a review!**


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